Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Blackberry Bacon Grilled Cheese

July was money, August was time, and September (and possibly October) are going to be meal recipes. I'd like to start by pointing out we do not claim to be the healthiest eaters by any extent so just, be warned.

Growing up Catholic, grilled cheese was always a staple in our house
in the late winter/early spring. No meat on Ash Wednesdays and Fridays
meant a lot of grilled cheese and tomato soup, a classic combination I
still enjoy! Almost all the grilled cheese eating we still do is during
Lent and then by the end we are ready for a break from cheese (I know
Catholics who don’t eat cheese and others who have given up cheese for
Lent…which…is a little mind blowing…cheese is a big part of our diet on
meatless days!)

However, our grilled cheese only in the spring has changed because we
have a new recipe. Who would have thought you needed a recipe for
grilled cheese? For pretty much my entire life it’s just been basic
bread with whatever cheese is in the fridge. This takes slightly more
planning and slightly more work but is definitely the best grilled
cheese I’ve had. We ate these for supper for 3 nights in a row and they
were fantastic each night.

The basics are the same. We just used basic sandwich bread (I’ve
never had much luck using homemade bread for grilled cheese, maybe
because it’s hard to slice thin? I don’t know but it’s never worked too
well for us) and the process was the same besides switching up the
cheese to swiss. And adding blackberry jam. And bacon. I mean, that’s
definitely going to keep these from being Lent appropriate but the rest
of the year it makes these pretty dang delicious. I’m not even a big
bacon person. Before these sandwiches my bacon for the year was pretty
much limited to the occasional bacon bits on salad or a baked potato and
a few junior bacon cheeseburgers from Wendy’s. I don’t remember the
last time I ate just a strip of bacon and I’m perfectly ok with that.
But in these…I really liked the bacon. I did have one without (because
Luke declared after his first sandwich that he didn’t like bacon so the
rest of the sandwiches that he didn’t eat didn’t have any) and it was
still pretty great, good enough that it’s probably going to be our new
standard grilled cheese for Lent. Or year-round. The only thing that
will change is the bacon!

DirectionsButter one side of each piece of bread and put one piece, butter side
down, in a frying pan set over medium heat. Add a slice of swiss, a
few slices of bacon, another slice of swiss (if using). Spread
blackberry jam on the non-buttered side of bread not in the frying pan
(yes, this is a little messy but it’s worth it.) Place on top of the
sandwich in the frying pan, butter side up. Cook until the bottom piece
of bread is toasted (check it with a flipper) and then flip and repeat
on the other side. Don’t let it burn (we almost always burn at least
one…) Enjoy!!